Designing Character Classes: The Blademaster

 The Blademaster.

The Blademaster is a Dexterity-based class. Their skillset is based around generating and spending resource called Momentum. It is generated by using certain spells, and decays rapidly. Most non-generating offensive spells spend Momentum. It decays sligtly faster when standing still - which is more of a thematic thing idea than a mechanic at the moment. You don't have a reason to stand still too much, for now. 

A resource generator spell is a must for a class which needs resource to deal damage. It seems like a limitation in a roguelite setting. As such, there are three spells which serve as generators, out of(currently) 15 Blademaster spells.

The first one is  Slash, which generates some momentum for every enemy hit. Effective against multiple enemies, for it lets you generate quickly and use your spenders more often.

The second one is  Lunge, which makes your character dash forward a small distance, dealing damage to nearby enemies. After the dash, you generate Momentum automatically for a few seconds while moving. While this does not scale with enemy count, it allows for Momentum generation out of combat or while dodgine enemy attacks.

The third one is  Sheathe. This is the latest spell added to the Blademaster's skillset due to the lack of generators, and it forced me to augment the existing resource system. It makes your next Momentum spender free, but causes it to deal reduced damage.

Spenders are quite varied. Here's a few:  Whirlwind continuously deals damage around you for 2 seconds,  Rupture deals a small amount of direct damage, followed by a few seconds of damage-over-time Bleed effect,  Slice deals damage with a chance to trigger itself several times, akin to old Windfury in World of Warcraft.

There are other supporting spells, such as  Focused Breath which gives your next damaging spell a 100% critical chance, or  Dagger Throw, which deals damage and stuns an enemy at range.

The Blademaster has three core playstyles: High-damage spenders, Bleed effect synergy, and Multistrike effects.

High-damage spenders: Some spenders, such as  Fatal Draw, can be modified to deal even more damage, combined with  Focused Breath and  Two-Handed Grip can achieve enormous damage amonuts.

Bleed effect synergies: the Blademaster has several ways of inflicting Bleed effects. To compliment those,   Scent of Blood passive increases all damage done to Bleeding enemies, and  Stab the Wound passive gives a chance to consume a Bleed effect, instantly dealing its remaining damage to the target.

Multistrike:  Slice has a baked-in chance to deal damage several times. You could combine that with Echoing Strikes passive, which double-down on that effect, and  Brutal Strikes passive, which gives all attacks a chance to deal extra flat damage.

While these are more or less generic playstyles which can be mixed and matched with various spells, there are ways to double-down on certain single spells. For example,  Slash can be modified to become usable without stopping movement, and to deal an increased amount of damage if no other spells are used in-between. You can find those modifiers on various gear pieces, or get lucky and loot The Slashbringer, which is a unique item which guarantees to provide both of those mods.

The Blademaster, with all the listed Spells(and more!) is available to play right now.